Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep #9
Written by Philip K. Dick
Art by Tony Parker
Covers: Moritat, Scott Keating
BOOM! Studios
Price: $3.99; Release date: March 3, 2010

Full disclosure, I love Philip K. Dick. I have almost every novel and short story he’s ever published including Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. While Androids is not my favourite book, it is the most well-known Dick novel, so it came as little surprise when I learned that BOOM! Studios was adapting it into comic book form.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep #9 picks up one of the most fascinating sections of the novel: the bounty hunter Deckard has been cornered by suspected android Luba Loft, who accuses him of being a sexual deviant. Instead of simply executing him right then and there, she calls in another police officer, Crams, who claims that he has never heard of a bounty hunter in the San Francisco police department named Deckard, nor has he ever heard of his superior, Harry Bryant. In fact, when Deckard tries to contact Bryant, the connection is cut off before Crams has a chance to speak with him. After finding the body of a “retired” android in Deckard’s car, he is arrested and shuffled into the back of Crams patrol car. Deckard soon realizes that he has been duped by the androids, and he is now at their mercy.

Monsters Inc. Laughing Factory
Written by Paul Benjamin
Art by Amy Mebberson
BOOM! Studios
Trade Paperback; Price: $9.99
Release date: March 3, 2010

The interesting thing about creating comic books based on Pixar‘s string of successful animated films is that you can further explore the universes those characters live in. One of Pixar’s early successes was Monsters Inc., owing largely to its breakthrough animation and great voice acting work from Billy Crystal and John Goodman.

BOOM! KIDS, now having the contract on all Pixar materials, has produced a volume of comics from the Monsters Inc. universe, following Sullivan and Mike Wazowski (I always thought it was hilarious that monsters would have such boring names) on their continuing adventures in Monstropolis.

At first I didn’t expect much out of Monsters Inc. in comic book form. A fan of the original film, I couldn’t see how much further they possibly could have carried the story. In the end, it turns out I was right not to expect much. While the dialogue still carries much of the humour and charm that made the original script so endearing, it is apparent that Paul Benjamin was hard pressed to come up with new ways to use the characters.

Disney’s Hero Squad Ultraheroes #2
Written by Giorgio Salati, Ricardo Secchi
Art by Roberta Mighelli, Stefano Turconi
Covers by Magic Eye Studios
BOOM! Studios
Price: $2.99; Release date: March 3, 2010

Turning Disney characters into super-heroes is nothing new: Super-Goof has been around since my father was a kid. The Disney’s Hero Squad Ultraheroes just extends that tradition to the rest of the Disney characters cast. Iron Gus, Super-Goof, The Red Bat, Super-Daisy, The Duck Avenger, and Cloverleaf band together to battle the evil of Roller Dollar and the Phantom Blot!

The story itself is fairly cartoonish and fun. Mickey Mouse hunts for Scrooge McDuck’s money bin, while the Ultra-Heroes match wits with the Roller Dollar and Phantom Blot to hunt down a series of Ultra-pods. What is really interesting about this particular comic is that, in many ways, it throws back to the Stan Lee and Steve Ditko comics of the 1960’s.

Donald Duck and Friends #351
Written by Fausto Vitaliano and Marco Bosco
Art by Marco Mazzarello and Franco D’Ippolito
BOOM! Studios
Release date: February 24, 2010

Remember the days when Donald Duck wasn’t as much of a talker as he was a loud and angry quacker? Well those days are all over. In BOOM! Studios’ Donald Duck and Friends #351, Donald Duck has been re-imagined as a secret agent, working among other secret birds in an attempt to retrieve a disk full of code names from an international criminal named Marlo Burke, all while dealing with a fellow agent named Kay and a pair of crooked agents named B.Berry and B.Black.

To tell you the truth, I was surprised with the complexity of the Donald Duck and Friends comic. The plot was a maze of crossings and double-crossing that could match with any classic spy thriller, from Mission: Impossible to Ronan. For a kid’s comic, it was surprisingly sophisticated. Yet the writers Fausto Vitaliano and Marco Bosco still maintain the cartoonish elements. Donald Duck is still constantly getting in trouble with his cartoon girlfriend Daisy Duck, and he still drives that bright red cartoon jalopy, even though everyone around him drives modern cars.

Grab your fedora and your trenchcoat as Kevin Smith’s Green Hornet Hits Stands This Week!

Still upset that Kevin Smith‘s version of the classic noir radio hero isn’t going to make it to the silver screen? Now you’ll get your chance to see Silent Bob’s version of the Fran Striker’s Green Hornet with art by Jonathan Lau. Dynamite Entertainment will be publishing a 10-page miniseries based on the unproduced Green Hornet script Smith wrote for Miramax films. Kevin Smith’s Green Hornet #1 will hit newsstands this Wednesday, March 3, 2010, with covers by Covers: Alex Ross, John Cassaday, J. Scott Campbell, and Stephen Segovia.